Alumni News

Day: August 16, 2019

Tomorrow Needs Tech: A Podcast with President Koubek

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Welcome to Tomorrow Needs Tech, a series of podcasts with President Koubek and prominent Michigan Tech alumni, discussing topics like computing, leadership, industry, and diversity.

Listen below, or you can also find Tomorrow Needs Tech on the following platforms: SoundCloud, iTunes, Stitcher, and TuneIn.

 

 

Podcast 1: Tomorrow Needs Computing

Michigan Tech President Rick Koubek sits down with alumnus Dave House ’65 to talk about Michigan Tech’s future as a leader in computing and technology.

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What You Said in July about Tech……

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From “What are some of your favorite Keweenaw Camping Spots” on Facebook

“Silver Mountain and walking from Wads downtown for stress relief at shoots & ladders” -Ericka H.

“We used to rent canoes from Wads and camp on a rough 2 track on Lake Fannie Hooe. Never saw another person unless we canoed by the fort.” -Joe N.

“Camping on the White City beach near Jacobsville” -Kirk O.

“Camped on Rock House Point several times. (Off limits now, I think.) Also Keystone Bay was great camping, and I think it’s been off limits since the fire out there 10 years ago or more.” -Christopher H.

“McLain State Park for camping, the Breakers at McLain for beaches” -Kayla G.

“5-Mile Point, where we’d swim and have bonfires in the 80’s and where I proposed to my wife in ‘95 😀…which is now private property with lakeshore houses and “No Trespassing” signs” -Pete M.

“Back side of the Great Sand Bay Dunes” -John C.

From “Here’s a quick tour of campus” on Facebook

“I got 2 years until I come for the reunion…. Probably a visit next year for good measure.” -Richard L.

“I love you and I miss you MTU” -Monica W.

“Things have changed in 60 years. For the better.” -Richard M.

From “Any memories from this Michigan Tech historical building? Hubbell Hall.”

“Learned Something new today about campus!” -Denise L.

“That building was still in use when I attended MTU in 1966…….Bill P. MTU alumni, BS Math, 1966.” -Bill P.

“That’s where I was on the day President Kennedy was shot. Classes were dismissed and we all went back to the dorms (DHH for me) to listen to the radio broadcast.” -Wayne T.

“My math major home 60-64. Fisher Hall was under construction my senior year and opened for classes the Fall after I graduated.” -Andrew P.
“Was the Administration Building when I began at Tech. Registrar on first floor and library in basement. Still have this building on my Balfour class ring.” -John D.
“Took a number of math classes in the building in the mid 1950s – mostly pleasant memories.” -Patrick D.
“Historical old building but open central wood stairs fire trap. Remember the coils of rope near top story windows” -Dick W.
“I was going to tell the story of the rope fire escapes but you beat me to it. As a frosh the window well was my assigned seat until enough dropped out to get a real desk. Was most happy to not have to be the one to kick the window out if necessary. Back in the day as they say…..
Class of ’64.” -Bud P.
“I graduated BS Met Eng in 68. We were promised that, because of its historical significance, it would never be torn down. Bloody shame.” -Bob S.
From “Dave Chamino passed away on July 5th” on Facebook
“Dr. Chimino was a good prof. His teaching style was excellent. The tests were very tough, even though he swore he didn’t intentionally put answers on the multiple choice that were results of miscalculation. I learned a lot from him.” -Tim B.
“Great professor, one of the many at Michigan Tech. I remember Dr Chimino, the Physics class I took was what we called “Physics for Majors”. I was not a Physics major, but Dr Chimino was the one who taught me we have no room for error in the “major” class, of course because every answer I would get was a choice on the sheet (he would calculate wrong answers based on typical errors in the calculations, making you think the answer was right). Funny thing, when I went on to teach at MSU and in industry, I did the same thing, and people hated it. 😂😂😂. RIP Dr Chimino.” -Mark T.
“His syllabus always started out with us behind. He was great.” -Sarah W.
“Sad Day for a superb Professor.” -Robert M.
“He could draw a perfect circle on the blackboard. Consistently.” -Ken H.
“The famous perfect circle AND every possible wrong calculation on a test being one of the possible multiple choice answers.” -Gary M.
” If asked how he drew perfect circles he would reply “Maintain a constant radius”” -Ed E.
From “The 2019 Alumni Awards are Here” on Facebook
“I can’t wait to get there for my 10 year reunion in 2021!!” -Richard L.
From “Are you ready to take on our Mobile Escape Room” on Facebook
“The Forestry Alums who work wildland fire will have no issue getting through your escape room.” -Matt O.
From “What are your favorite Keweenaw camping spots” on Instagram
“The hidden ones you can only really explain by taking someone there” -wherin_the_world_is_erin on Instagram
“Beta Gris hands down” -dogsma02gkk on Instagram
From “Exploring the Keweenaw” in the Alumni Blogs
“There is certainly no shortage of memorable and adventurous places in the MTU area. Several of my Forestry program friends and I (Bill R., Bill T. and Lee G. – all ’64) made a point of visiting many of them. My favorites, however, were those which brought a combination of adventure, exploration and solitude. I think of places quiet and isolated, and places once occupied by a past generation, and now abandoned. To stand there in 1960-64, as the sun was setting, was to imagine those past times and life events. I recall particularly Red Ridge and Freda, the Cliff mine, and Keystone Bay at the tip of the Keweenaw. In more recent years I have re-visited some of these sites with family. While still intriguing, I’ll probably never recapture the nostalgia of some 55 years ago.” -Ted R.
From “Remembering Professor David Chamino” in the Alumni Blogs
“His physics demonstrations were THE COOLEST and for a visual learner like me, permanently ingrained the lessons in my brain.” -David P.
“Dave Chimino was a definite inspiration to me. In my own career as a physics professor, Electomagnetic Fields was always my favorite course to teach, but I could never draw those perfect circles. I did use a lot of colored chalk though.” -Robert L.
“Dr. Chimino was the very best instructor I had while a student from 1968-1972. He made physics come alive for me, and took it from a dry, calculation-driven world into a place where I eventually developed a true sense of wonderment. I will never forget when he was drawing a complex system of circular motion, and laughter broke out in Fisher 135. He turned and said, “What, did I make a mistake?” And the answer from someone in the front row was “No, it’s just those perfect circles! How do you do that?” Dr. C answered, without hesitation, “Well, I just keep R constant.” Perfect!” -Michael A.
“Once when asked how he drew those perfect circles, his reply was “Keep a constant radius.” His demonstration with the spinning bicycle wheel and a stool with a swivel seat is also memorable.” -Gregory S.
“Dave Chimino was a personal friend as well as a mentor. We worked together on his idea of video taped lectures as I had a background in broadcast video when I came to Tech. One summer many years later, when Dave had an internship at Lawrence Livermore Labratories, we met and toured their nuclear fusion project. Dave’s reaction? “That’s what I call mega-buck physics”.
R.I.P. my friend.” -Jon W.

“Professor Chimino had that magic gift of teaching, on often difficult to understand principles, to hard-headed physics students like me such that we actually learned the stuff. Yes, he could draw well on the chalk board, and that helped, but he also had that rare ability to explain, even show us, what the “things,” or abstract physics ideas, in his lectures, were all about. We actually learned, thanks to him.And, thanks to Professor Chimino, and a few others like him, a lot of us physics types made it and, perhaps, even helped move the science forward a mm or two. Only time will tell. But what is for sure, is that no one was ever better at lecturing Physics than Professor Dave Chimino.” -C. John U.

“The spinning bicycle wheel was great. We laughed about it for weeks, but we got the message. I also remember him writing on the board with one hand while he erased with the other. Better be quick at taking notes!” -Dave S.

“I thought of Prof. Chimino often during my career as his Electrical Measurements course was very much like what my early job tasks were like in the nuclear power field. The lab for that course was two credits and was the hardest two credits I ever earned but the lessons were life long. I was also lucky enough to take his general astronomy class. At that time he was in the planning stage of his observatory. People like him made Tech the special place it is.” -Tom M.

“Prof. Chimino had the knack of turning an equation into a tangible reality, which made it enormously easier for students to grasp the principle embedded in the equation. I’m sure that ping pong balls and strobe lights were never used so effectively in a physics class anywhere else. While I am saddened to hear of his passing, his presence still looms large; in a very beneficial way.” -Paul M.

“Dave was my adviser 1958 -1962, and gave us an oral final exam in Electricity and Magnetism, which I think he had a photographic memory, because when asked a question during our problem solving lab, replied “go to page 207, and in the middle of the page…….”. This petrified most of us with an oral final pending, No BS gonna happen.” -Sam L.

“My wife and I both enjoyed a pretty spectacular time in Tech History when we had the one two punch of Chimino for Physics, and Berry for Chemistry. Sadly, both have now passed. While Berry made us all quiver with fear, Chimino’s class was a blast- he always had demo’s- Block sliding down planes, the spinning bicycle wheel, perfect circles, and other oddities that kept our attention and made us remember the concepts. And I remember quivering with fear after waiting in Fisher Hall to see the posting of the exam grades. Ten questions 100 points. And every possible answer you could come up with if you took the wrong direction in your thinking. For instance, the square root of the answer, or the negative, or whatever mistake you were most likely to make. His lessons will always occupy a smiling part of my brain.” -Steve A.

“Professor Chimino would often draw circles and other curved surfaces in his optics classes. What was really amazing is he would draw a seemingly perfect circle freehand in one motion, then he would check it using a compass.

One of his best projects was undergraduate physics lab in the basement of Fisher Hall.” -Ned E.

“I had Dr. Chimino for an optics class. He made learning fun and yes the perfect circles were scary cool. RIP” -Reid S.
“Taking PH204 and PH205 from Professor Chimino was one of the best experiences I had in my early career at Tech (next to ME223). The ability to draw a perfect circle free-hand was, as others have noted, absolutely legendary. As was the vaporizing screwdriver / capacitor demo. But he was much more than a great lecturer with interesting presentations. He had a reputation of being a ‘tough’ instructor but a very equitable one as well. And a dry sense of humor. I remember an exam where he stood watching me use my LEFT hand to do right hand rule vector cross product directions. I realized what I was doing about the same time I realized he was watching me – with a huge grin. I’m sure he was thinking ‘I got another one of those MEs’!!! He’ll be sorely missed…” -Gary H.
“Of course the circles and bike wheel. But he was the one who ‘calibrated’ me to prepare for Tech when on day one he said, “Hope you remember your lessons, we start in Chapter 3.” He will be missed. Hope you are circling the stars!” -Paul S.
“Two memories that pop into my head from time to time: (1) 8 am lecture, middle of the winter, bleary eyed and sitting in the Fisher lecture hall. All of a sudden music comes blaring over the loud speakers (don’t remember exactly what, but that it had a catchy acoustic bass line). Just as suddenly the music stops and Chimino walks in like nothing happened and starts his lecture. (2) discussion about F=ma and units, he pulls out a metric kilogram weight to illustrate inertial mass and then without the slightest change in expression hoists a concrete cinder block out of nowhere to illustrate the imperial slug.” -Dave R.
“40 years later and I still remember those perfect circles! Excellent professor. I REALLY learned Physics and it was enjoyable.” -Stephen K.
“An appreciation of physics is at the core of every engineering student’s tasks. Many thanks to Dr. Chimino and happy memories of his guidance.” -Al C.
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